A regional daily editor is leaving his role after bosses decided to merge his paper’s editorial operations with that of a sister title.

Regional publisher Newsquest has decided to merge the editorial operations of The Press, York and the Telegraph & Argus, Bradford.

It means Steve Hughes, currently editor of The Press, is to leave the company after 13 years.

Perry Austin-Clarke, currently editor of the Telegraph & Argus and group editor (Bradford), will assume the new role of group editor (Yorkshire) overseeing both daily titles along with a number of sister weeklies.

The announcement was made to staff today by David Coates, regional managing director for Newsquest Yorkshire & North East.

It read: “The company plans to merge the management of its editorial operations in York & Bradford and after 13 successful years with Newsquest, Steve Hughes has decided to leave the company.

“Steve’s done a great job for us in York, helping to manage our operations through the worst of the credit crisis and he played an important role in our recent move into new offices in Walmgate.

“Our newspapers and associated websites have benefited from Steve’s stewardship and his influence will be missed by his friends and colleagues within the business.”

Today’s announcement means Steve is the 11th regional editor to leave their role during 2014 although his formal leaving date is not until 9 January.

He took over as managing director in York in 2007 after a stint as editor of The Bolton News.  Two years later he took over as editor from Kevin Booth, now at the Leicester Mercury, after a restructure saw the MD and editor roles combined.

Perry has been editor of the T&A since 1992 and is one of the longest-serving editors in the regional press.

He is a previous deputy editor of The Press and also edited the Gazette & Herald in North Yorkshire.